Conventional printed marketing materials that are sent to customers generally contain static marketing information and possibly some customized text information. For example, printed marketing information may take the form of letters, cards and/or brochures that include a customer's name, address or other textual information about a customer. Similarly some forms of online advertising allow for customers to request dynamic information once they have received online marketing materials. For example, if a user receives an electronic invitation from “Evite” from IAC/InterActiveCorp of New York, N.Y., there may be a link to obtain a map from a specified online mapping provider to an event associated with the Evite. Generally the maps that are available online from online mapping providers such as MapQuest of Denver, Colo., do not provide a high enough quality map for printed materials.
Additionally, communication networks are well known in the computer communications field. By definition, a network is a group of computers and associated devices that are connected by communications facilities or links. Network communications can be of a permanent nature, such as via cables, or can be of a temporary nature, such as connections made through telephone or wireless links. Networks may vary in size, from a local area network (“LAN”), consisting of a few computers or workstations and related devices, to a wide area network (“WAN”), which interconnects computers and LANs that are geographically dispersed, to a remote access service, which interconnects remote computers via temporary communication links. An inter-network, in turn, is the joining of multiple computer networks, both similar and dissimilar, by means of gateways or routers that facilitate data transfer and conversion from various networks. A well-known abbreviation for the term inter-network is “internet.” As currently understood, the capitalized term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and routers that use the Internet Protocol (“IP”), along with higher-level protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”) or the Uniform Datagram Packet (“UDP”) protocol, to communicate with one another.
Existing marketing methods are not as effective as they could be regarding customized marketing to local individuals. It is common to get direct marketing materials with a cursory level of personalization, such as an ad with one's name printed onto an otherwise generic document. It is also not uncommon to receive marketing materials that include a map showing the location or locations of a business in a city or region. However existing methods do now allow for locally targeted personalized marketing materials that not only indicate the location or locations of the branches of a business that are closest to each targeted prospective customer, but that may also indicate a custom travel route between each individual prospective customer and a nearby branch (or branches).